City Series:Volume6e Chapter5
Chapter 5: The Promise Leaps[edit]
8/24/1943 02:41 – 02:48
You don’t need to know everything
You only need
To know a few important things
Because that lets you
Make a decision
Part 1[edit]
Tristan’s cross-like shape was partially due to the launch pad sticking out from its side. That enormous space was 100 yards wide and 300 yards long.
The top was built into a shallow depression to keep the wind off and the entire structure was constantly shaking from the wind.
It had become a battlefield made of pitch black metal.
A great bluish-white bird flew above that battlefield.
A woman ran below, her shoulders heaving. That was Hazel.
Several people were collapsed around her – all Geheimnis Agency soldiers.
Her eyes were on the Tristan tower 200 yards ahead.
A giant door was shut tight on its massive cylindrical surface.
That was used to let Heavy Barrels and transport ships in and out.
She was out of breath, but she kept her eyes on that door.
…Neue Erde is through there!
Witzmann had told her that. If she entered from this launch pad and continued straight, breaking through any doors that got in her way, she would arrive at the base of Tristan’s central Babel Gun.
“Neue Erde is waiting there.”
She swung Rein König to the right.
The prosthetic left fist swinging toward her was sliced through horizontally.
With the sound of metal being cut, several fingers flew from the fist. However…
<The opponent ignores his injury.>
She heard Aerial Words.
Her opponent reached his prosthetic right arm toward her chest which was wide open after swinging her sword to the right.
She remained calm. She confirmed his action and then looked behind him.
Another soldier was rushing in with sword raised.
The prosthetic arms man was meant to hold her in place so the sword strike could hit.
She dodged the incoming prosthetic arm by circling to his right.
She stepped right as if pulling her body toward Rein König.
She arrived next to his right shoulder, but she did not stop there. She continued to slip behind him.
She moved further right and confirmed that his hand had grazed her chest before snatching at the empty air.
<The opponent’s left arm – the one sliced by the sword earlier – moves.>
“Nh!” grunted the one man as his fingerless metal fist thrust out in front of her as she tried to circle behind him.
But instead of dodging the fist, she stopped her running feet.
The metal fist passed rapidly from left to right in her suddenly-stopped vision. She even felt the wind on her cheek.
“Sorry,” she said, sticking out her left hand and lifting his outstretched right elbow from below.
She placed the base of his prosthetic arm in the path of the sword coming from behind him.
And…
<The two of them suddenly disappear.>
Hazel gasped in surprise.
The hand holding the prosthetic arm now held empty air. The two enemies were gone.
<The two Neue Kavaliers have circled behind the Messiah.>
Hazel did not look back. It would be too late by the time she did.
So she took off running. She spun herself around while running and kept running backwards after turning.
<But they are behind her again.>
She stabbed Rein König below her arm and behind her.
<They are not there.>
She could not see the enemy. The Aerial Words were rewriting their location.
As she avoided them and ran, her foot caught on an obstacle. She stumbled on the leg of a Geheimnis Agency soldier she had defeated previously. Her heel hit the military boot while moving backwards.
She cried out and fell back onto her rear.
Her momentum caused her to bounce twice and topple onto her back. She saw the enemy in the air.
The two men rushed toward her, preparing to leap. One directed his metal arm toward her throat.
The other swung his sword tip down toward her hips as if to pin her in place.
She felt the instinctual animal fear of being on her back, but she still managed to move.
Instead of dodging, she opened her mouth and spoke a single word.
“Come!”
Before the word was even complete, power raced through the sky.
A great bird’s wings released a gust of wind.
The falcon wings captured the approaching soldiers and blasted them away instantly.
The wind and the impact rang loud and only the night sky through the dome remained in Hazel’s view.
She took a breath, stood up, and viewed the great bird flying away again as she got back to running.
She took a look around while running backwards with a hopping motion.
Men in black uniforms formed a circle around her at a distance of 20 yards.
“You still aren’t through?” she asked, jogging away.
They did not answer.
She smiled just a bit and turned to face the door into Tristan.
She was a bit more than 150 yards away.
She raised Rein König in front of her and muttered “let’s do this”.
Just then, a drum-like beat passed right through her body. It came from…
“Inside Tristan?”
After another beat, she was certain it came from the other side of that door in the distance. No, it came from even further in than that.
Another beat. The Neue Kavaliers around her were also looking up and toward the door.
Another beat. She could see the bluish-black Lives of confusion coming from them all.
When they realized they had no idea what this sound meant, tension filled their faces.
“Is Tristan overloading!?” she shouted, staring at the door.
They reacted to her voice by retaking their fighting stances.
But she ignored them. She crouched low and took off running while the beats continued.
“Please move out of the way! Don’t you understand what this means!?”
None of them obeyed. They only directed crimson killer intent her way.
She groaned and kicked off the metal ground to accelerate.
That ground kicked back without warning.
She cried out in confusion and tumbled to the ground.
She rolled to the side and noticed the continuing beat was growing louder and more intense.
The deep pulse reminded her of an enveloping heartbeat and it was now coming from the floor as well as through the door. It started weak, but by the fifth one, it was like a pounding impact.
…Is Neue Erde beginning its Ober Beweisen?
Hazel listened to that preparatory pulse as she got back up and viewed the closed door.
“Give me a path!” she shouted.
She was answered by a power from the sky.
The bluish-white wind falcon closed its wings to form its assault form and began to glide.
It was aimed nearly identically to Hazel’s eyes – toward the door that would lead her into Tristan.
The great bird opened its beak just once and let out a piercing screech as it approached the door.
<The door is open.>
There was no warning at all.
“Eh?”
Hazel was more astonished than surprised.
The door the enemy should have been defending to the bitter end had been thrown open, revealing the dark space beyond.
That shadowy space looked entirely empty from here.
But just as the falcon was about to fly inside, a giant blade stabbed out from the darkness. It was 20 yards along and made of glowing white light.
No, there were two swords stabbing out from the darkness in perfect unison.
They struck the approaching wind.
The falcon shattered and became an explosion of wind.
The air shook and briefly drowned out Tristan’s pulse.
Then the blades slowly emerged from the door. Including their wielder.
Hazel recognized it from the Geheimnis Agency’s Hamburg base a month ago.
A black aerial warship emerged from the darkness. It was shaped like a 30-yard blade.
She knew its name, so she came to a stop and spoke it aloud.
“Erlkönig!”
Erlkönig had the number 01 on its belly and it hovered above the ground as it advanced.
Its full body was soon across the threshold.
Hazel knew what the unmanned aerial warship had to be using in place of its own will.
…Neue Erde’s request.
That was proven by the Aerial Words coming from the sky.
<The Elf King rules the new world.>
Lights began to shine across Erlkönig.
The lights ran through the emblem patterns carved into its wings and surface armor and then ran through them again.
It was using two Power Points on the front to produce the pair of glowing swords.
Hazel faced Erlkönig from head on and exhaled with Rein König at the ready.
Her breath was white.
The Geheimnis Agency Neue Kavaliers standing between her and Erlkönig cleared a path for Erlkönig.
At the same time, she heard some straining metal.
She frowned in confusion and noticed the door closing behind Erlkönig. Unlike when the metal door opened, the double doors were closing gently but with increasing speed.
She moved forward.
<The Elf King makes its move.>
Erlkönig launched an attack from the right.
It struck Hazel.
“!?”
The attack had been too fast for her to perceive.
But her catlike reflexes had sent Rein König to the right.
Her blade stopped the 20-yard sword of solidified light.
However, the weight differential was too great.
Her feet left the ground and Rein König’s rear blade dug into her right shoulder. It sliced through the shoulder armor hidden below her clothing and stabbed into her right shoulder blade.
The bone creaked and she flew 11 yards before losing speed and tumbling along the metal ground.
She let out a breath and stood up, but her thoughts couldn’t keep up. She had acted purely on reflex, so she didn’t know where the attack had come from or how she had managed to defend against it.
She only knew that she had been hit by an attack, that she had been thrown backwards, and…
…That I’m alright.
Pain ran through her shoulder and she looked to the right to see blood on Rein König’s blade.
She looked forward to see Erlkönig’s glowing sword floating within arm’s reach.
“A single attack did all that?”
<The Elf King does not desire the Messiah.>
She gasped and looked up to see the black aerial warship gliding her way.
Its left sword was pulled back in preparation to swing.
She saw the attack this time. The silver arc swung low, aiming for her legs.
She gathered strength in her unsteady arms and attempted to get Rein König in place. But…
“Kh.”
The pain in her right shoulder loosened her grip on Rein König.
The giant slash did not care about her pain or anything else.
It simply continued along its arcing path.
In that instant, something flew into view.
It was a giant white wing.
Part 2[edit]
“Eh?”
Hazel clearly saw what had come to her rescue.
The wing belonged to a Heavy Barrel in white armor. It was the Neue Schwarz.
It sliced through the wind to move in between them and sent a high-speed knee into Erlkönig’s nose.
The blow sounded like shattering glass.
The speed overcame the mass differential, stopping the 30-yard aerial warship in its tracks.
The Erlkönig seemed to float up a bit, but a moment later, it pushed the wind out of the way and shot up into the sky.
Neue Schwarz glanced up at the fleeing ship, but that was all it had time for. The knee attack had thrown off its balance, so it entered a shallow vertical spin before crashing into the right door.
Its right shoulder hit first, piercing through the door with a boom Hazel felt in her gut.
Its white Ober Emblem armor instantly shattered and scattered as light with the sound of breaking ice.
Tristan’s pulse was drowned out while the ground below Hazel’s feet bent and shook vertically. The shaking reached an amplitude of about 3 inches and almost seemed synched with the pule.
Within that shaking and noise, Hazel looked to Neue Schwarz partially embedded in the door 150 yards away. The impact and the pointy Ober Emblem had torn through the door like paper, so its layered armor was splayed open like a flower blossom to devour the black warrior.
…He can’t get out like that.
But this prevented the right door from closing.
There was a gap of about 5 yards from the closed left door. She could get in without issue as long as she could reach that point.
Suddenly, Neue Schwarz’s secondary cockpit opened and five AIF soldiers emerged.
Before she could look up and widen her eyes, the surrounding Geheimnis Agency soldiers prepared to fight.
At the same time, someone stepped out from the darkness through the door.
The enormous man had a prosthetic right arm and wore a black combat coat.
He calmly walked out into the open air.
Hazel knew his name, but she was not the one to call it.
That voice came from the right where Neue Schwarz was embedded in the wall.
It was a somewhat raised man’s voice.
“I had a feeling you would be the last line of defense, ‘Schallmauer Zerstörer’ Hellard Schweitzer.”
Hazel turned toward the speaker.
Atop Neue Schwarz’s shoulder, she saw a black-haired man with his black coat whipping in the wind.
A sigh of relief escaped her mouth.
She breathed in and called his name in a much calmer voice.
“Berger.”
He gave her a smile in lieu of a response and nodded without taking his eyes off of Schweitzer.
Schweitzer nodded back at him.
“This is the final battle, Destiny and Messiah.” He took a breath. “And I have one thing to tell you, Berger.”
“What’s that?”
“I have abandoned a power just like you abandoned your divine power. I have thrown out my Titel of Schallmauer Zerstörer.”
“So you’re okay being a no-name soldier?”
“Yes, that is who I am here. Keep that in mind.”
“I see,” replied Berger, hopping down from Neue Schwarz.
His feet sounded hard on the ground. He pulled Gelegenheit’s hilt from the connection staff at Neue Schwarz’s hip on the way.
“I will keep it in mind, Hellard Schweitzer.”
Hazel saw the corners of Schweitzer’s lips curl at that.
But the distorted curl turned them upwards, not downwards.
…Is he smiling?
Hazel tilted her head at that smile between two men about to fight each other.
She could only hear Tristan’s pulse and the blowing wind.
The shaking from Neue Schwarz’s crash had weakened but continued below her feet and pain throbbed in her right collarbone, but the quaking and aching were not hindrances.
…They prove I really am here.
With that thought, she faced forward, toward the bearer of the destiny she needed to trust in.
Berger was there.
He held Gelegenheit and climbed down from Neue Schwarz’s hip to the floor before saying more.
“Schweitzer, I have a question: how much do you know?”
“All of it,” he answered quietly. “I came here knowing Tristan had begun to overload itself and knowing everything else as well.”
He moved just his eyes to view his surroundings.
His eyes landed first on Hazel and then on the Geheimnis Agency soldiers surrounding her.
“Perhaps it is too late, but I should probably tell the rest of you about the Nibelung. You must first choose whether or not you wish to be a guardian of Neue Erde. Only then can you truly choose to fight.” Schweitzer looked up into the sky and glared at the top of Tristan. “Attention all knights within earshot!”
Part 3[edit]
A dark space was filled with heat and had only red warning lights for illumination.
The cylindrical space’s floor was about 50 yards across and the walls were about 30 yards tall.
The ceiling was a circle just like the floor and there was a seam in the center.
B6-18 was written in white gothic text across the seam.
This was a storeroom on Germania’s deepest level. It was meant to hold VIP escape craft, so the cylinder was divided by 18 barrier floors that ensured absolute protection and a rapid escape route.
But currently, an aerial warship sat in the center of the floor instead of a VTOL escape craft. Its coloration was hard to make out in the red lighting, but it had a blade-like silhouette.
It was locked down on an elevated platform sitting on the floor and a veritable spider web of fuel pipes connected it to the surrounding walls.
Several people were moving around it, all of them wearing white coats dyed red by the lights.
The old man on the outer wall of the cockpit at the top of the aerial warship gave them all instructions.
He was Development Division Chief Elrich. He called to the young researcher removing the rear protective cover.
“How is Tristan doing?”
“Neue Erde took over at 2:30. Its Ober Beweisen should be starting soon.” A pulse sounded and the researcher pointed toward the door leading further in. “But its power has very nearly overloaded already, making for a very dangerous situation. The structural materials cannot withstand this pressure for long, so if this continues for another half an hour, Tristan’s Tons may begin to break down.”
Something was unusual on the back wall where a 4-yard door was located.
There was a vein there.
A blood vessel made from the same material as the wall was throbbing in time with the pulse.
“So the overload has begun already,” noted Elrich when he saw it. “Isn’t this a tad quick? I thought it wasn’t supposed to peak until 3.”
“Neue Erde appears to be gradually increasing the power on its own. Slowly and carefully.”
“I see. The control room must be in a tizzy. Because there is nothing they can do to stop it at this point.”
With that, he stopped paying attention to the wall. He instead viewed the cockpit hatch in front of him.
“Is it alright that it only has room for one?”
“Our commander said to assume the Messiah would be the only passenger since the Sylphide itself runs autonomously.”
“Hmph. Let me guess: she also said to make the cryogenic storage device for one, didn’t she?”
“You guess correctly.”
“I was told in the past that only one person could return to the present.”
A researcher turning a large bolt to release the ship from the elevated platform responded to Elrich.
“But, chief, is what you said about the Nibelung really true?”
“If you don’t believe me, why are you here working?”
Elrich’s question contained a hint of a smile. He opened the hatch and took a look inside.
“Because you lot got carried away and completed eight Erlkönigs while I was away, the power balance between Neue Erde and the Messiah has tilted heavily in Neue Erde’s favor. But that destiny only exists because Neue Erde was warned in advance…which is what I call cheating.”
“Then why are we preparing the Sylphide in secret?”
“Because engineers love nothing quite as much as a secret project.” He laughed bitterly, told them to “remember that”, and went inside.
The cockpit was cramped. The floor was two yards long and one yard wide and the space was about a yard high. The cockpit existed as a tub-like sunken portion in the front.
“I don’t see a cryogenic storage device. Does the entire cockpit itself double as one?”
He was answered by the researcher standing outside the hatch.
“After a triple-confirmation switch, the shutter lowers and seals the cockpit for freezing. The prototype and the wreckage found at Hamburg used a separate chamber, which obstructed the rear view from the cockpit, so we solved that issue.”
“I see. Excellent work.”
“The Hamburg wreckage gave us the hint we needed. It had a larger cockpit with a single chair-style seat, but we reassessed the design and lowered it all by about a yard to-”
Elrich nodded and held his hand out toward the hatch to stop the man. His eyes were still on the inside of the cockpit.
“Hm?”
He saw something glitter atop the control panel. But not the metal or glass of the controls or gauges.
“A woman’s bracelet? What is this doing here?”
“It was within the parts collected from the prototype. A colleague said he had seen Marsch wearing something similar.”
“Marsch Gant, huh?”
Elrich narrowed his eyes a little and lowered his head, but only for a short moment. He nodded toward the bracelet on the controls and backed out of the hatch.
He stuck his hands in his lab coat’s pockets and asked a question of the researcher waiting out there.
“Have you completed the two modifications I requested via telegraph from the old HQ?”
“Yes, it will all be complete in a few more minutes. First, the engine fuel bypass was switched to a fully external supply…just like with the Kaiserburg. It was 80/20 external/internal before, so as a stopgap measure, we blocked off the bypass from the internal tank and set the input sensitivity of the 8 external intake ports to 130%.”
“Good. As long as the initial startup works, the Sylphide will be able to extract ether from its surroundings and fly without ever needing to refuel.” Elrich looked to the researchers working on different parts of Sylphide. “Have you removed the limit on the external supply? So that it can consume external ether at all times, even with its Panzer Emblem active?”
“Yes. The Kaiserburg shut off the external intake when using its Panzer Emblem to ensure stability of the Panzer Emblem’s form. That created a momentary reduction of power immediately after ending the Panzer Emblem. Removing that limit will cause the Sylphide to consume its own Panzer Emblem, but…” The researcher paused. “But the real problem is compatibility with the next modification. As instructed, we extended the Panzer Emblem’s activation text to connect with the basic repair emblem text. That should allow it to repair its Panzer Emblem.”
“I fail to see the problem. The Hamburg wreckage handled the issue similarly, I believe.”
“The Panzer Emblem works by syncing any colliding matter with its ether armor Tons, destroying it. But this Sylphide will then consume the destroyed object’s Tons through its exterior intake.” A breath. “But even after being synced, a small portion of the original Rätsel remains. So instead of just consuming the Tons of whatever it destroys and using them as more material for the Panzer Emblem, the Sylphide must use its repair emblems.”
“Yes, to repair the destroyed objects to their original form.”
“An aerial warship with the power to Tune is terribly unstable! What if it loses control!?”
“The prototype took in the Tons of the Schreibener and this one uses some of the prototype’s components, so it possesses Marsch Gant’s will and that will keep it under control.”
Elrich did not sound remotely worried. He gave the gasping researcher a glance before looking around the area.
The workers were looking up at him.
He shut Sylphide’s hatch while looking down at them.
He slapped his hand on its armor a few times, making just as many sounds.
“The Messiah no longer wishes to destroy, so the same will be true of her guardian dragon. This aerial warship possesses the power to break through its opponent, but it will retune them afterwards.” He viewed them all. “Perhaps we should call it an autonomous Tuning Werkzeug.”
Part 4[edit]
A battle was underway in the center of Germania.
A silver Heavy Barrel fought a man with two prosthetic arms. They were Heiliger and Pale.
The two inordinately large people ran southeast across a deserted wasteland.
They were just inside the western side of Germania. Another 10 yards south and they would reach the large hole between Charlottenburg and Tiergarten.
There was no road. A Word Rifle beam had torn a trench in the ground from east to west. If they ran much further, they would reach the main road and they could take that east to reach Tiergarten.
The only movement beyond themselves was the occasional tree, building chunk, or sign falling to the ground after being launched by their battle. Sounds of combat came from far to the east and west, but only the Heavy Barrel and the man could be found here.
Pale’s gray hair was matted with blood. Blood dripped down his forehead and the scar on his one eye had reopened.
But he bared his bloody teeth and smiled at the silver Heavy Barrel.
The pulse coming from Tristan was slowly increasing in speed and volume.
“What’s wrong, Heiliger? Distracted by Tristan’s out-of-control pulse? It only took one good blow to throw your main force and your western unit into disarray. So what now?”
“You are meant to command your entire army, so why do you seek a personal fight?”
Pale didn’t answer that.
The silver Heavy Barrel looked to the sky where the moon shined through the dome.
“You will die soon. Tonight is not a full moon like it was during the previous war. You cannot draw on your true power as a Heidengeist, so you are struck relying on the Frühmond drug. Your Archetype bloodline cannot save you here.”
“Really wish you didn’t know that!”
A sword rushed in. The strike was made while running, but it was steady and drew a perfect arc toward Pale’s back.
He swung his metal fist back and punched the blade.
The metal clang coincided with Tristan’s pulse.
With the roar of wind being pushed away, Pale’s fist was knocked forward by the force of the sword.
He moved about 10 yards ahead of Neue Silber and landed on the shaking ground.
“Too slow.”
A powerful slash dropped down from directly above.
Pale clenched his teeth and punched the ground. His metal fist went through its triple acceleration to blast away the dirt.
With a trio of roars, Pale used the power of his fist to leap forward. As soon as he was away, the asphalt behind him exploded from a sword strike. He summed up his thoughts by whistling.
He saw the ground was shaking even more than before.
“An earthquake? No, his sword strike and the pulse were in sync.”
A great hole had opened up within arm’s reach. When a shock ran through the ground, it could be seen as a vibration, especially on cracked and broken ground.
Another pulse arrived from Tristan.
On the nauseating pulse, Pale landed and faced forward again.
The amplitude of the ground’s shaking was growing sharper and more focused as he viewed his opponent.
Neue Silber straightened its forward-leaning body and began putting its sword away at its hip.
Pale stood up and asked a question.
“Why are you sheathing your sword? In a rush to go somewhere?”
“You are only trying to buy time here. Your fists can never reach my Panzer.”
The silver Heavy Barrel’s blade vanished into the scabbard at its hip.
Pale viewed the black scabbard and frowned.
“You think I can’t reach you?”
The silver Heavy Barrel did not respond.
Neue Silber looked up and away from Pale. It viewed the top of Tristan.
That was the tallest point in Germania.
An AIF two-hull transport ship was battling Erlkönig in the sky above that.
Neue Silber spread the six wings on its back. It had already started gathering air in those wings.
Pale clicked his tongue when he saw the shimmering heat rising from the wings. And just before that moving air became a wind…
“I just thought of a great way of getting my fist to you.”
The silver Heavy Barrel did not even look his way. But Pale still bent his left elbow and directed his left fist toward the ground.
The movement came suddenly.
His left fist clenched as tight as possible.
The heavy metal frame made some noises as it formed an even larger metal fist. The elbow had already pulled back behind him in preparation to throw a punch. He bared his fangs but kept his voice relatively quiet.
“So stick around a while longer.”
After that, his voice and his fist gave a roar.
His arm flew straight down toward the ground and it gained extra acceleration as metallic noises and steam came from the elbow.
The fist parted the white steam. And not just once. It happened thrice before the swing was complete.
The air was audibly destroyed three times before the fist struck the ground.
With the sound of compressing dirt, Pale kicked off the ground.
He used the force of the impact and his own strength to produce an incredible acceleration.
His crouching body leaped to the left of the silver Heavy Barrel with the force of an artillery shell.
“Nh.”
In an instant, Neue Silber took a defensive stance and Pale landed to its left, blasting dirt into the air.
Neue Silber turned toward him just as Pale punched the ground again.
The triple blast of acceleration sounded in an instant and Pale launched himself behind the Heavy Barrel.
All that remained was the afterimage of his silver hair, the cloud of dirt rising from the ground, and the powerful shaking of that ground.
The silver afterimage moved behind Neue Silber.
Neue Silber planted its feet firmly on the ground, drew its sword, and stabbed it backwards.
The sound of a sword slicing flesh and the impact of a fist could both be heard from the direction it sent the sword tip.
The white smoke of smashed air surrounded it and something leaped to its right.
Another triple metallic noise followed.
Pale left behind an afterimage showing a slashed cheek as he circled in front of Neue Silber.
He bled as he lowered his hips and pulled his left shoulder back to stand at an angle. Sweat dripped down his brow and his left arm’s elbow was glowing red with heat, but there was a smile on his lips.
“Let’s finish this!” shouted the beast.
With another crash of impact, the ground’s vertical shaking increased and the silver-haired man left an afterimage as he leaped to his right and Neue Silber’s left, which was north.
Pale landed with both feet firmly on the ground and faced forward. He was about 12 yards from the silver Heavy Barrel.
The ground was shaking below him and the amplitude had surpassed half a yard.
The repeated blows had formed waves that increased the shaking.
He used that shaking to lightly kick off the ground and jump straight up.
Just then, he heard a faint voice from the distant sky. It was a man’s deep but carrying voice.
“Attention all knights within earshot!”
Pale caught some of what the voice said next while in midair.
“So the time has come for the Neue Kavaliers to learn of the Wheel of Destiny,” he muttered, spinning through the air and readying his right fist behind him.
The ground below him had reached the lowest point of its amplitude.
Meanwhile, Neue Silber grabbed the hilt of its backwards-thrusting sword with both hands.
The silver Heavy Barrel twisted its body toward Pale and raised the sword to swing it down in a large arc.
The quaking ground started to rise.
With the threat of the ground below and the sword above, Pale’s eyes were on the sword.
“Do you know how much force it takes to shake the weight of a city by half a yard?”
It all happened in an instant.
Pale did not dodge the slash.
He opted for an offensive defense. He swung his left fist straight up to punch the blade.
With a sound like shattering glass, Neue Silber’s blade instantly broke from the hilt and Pale’s left fist broke in return.
The impact slammed Pale’s body toward the ground, but just before he hit, he shouted up at his foe.
“You’re about to find out!”
Pale’s right fist flew diagonally down toward Germania’s rising ground.
That fist had applied its triple acceleration to the vector provided by Neue Silber’s sword strike.
It struck the ground with all that built-up momentum.
The fist smashed into the ground and Germania rumbled.
Then the principle behind a ricocheting bullet gave Pale’s body great speed.
He twisted his airborne body, giving himself a rapid spin that sent his right arm forward.
He saw Neue Silber still in the follow through for swinging down its sword.
Beyond that, he also saw a large pit opened in Germania’s ground.
His metal right elbow clicked like a key turning in a lock and all of its steam ports opened.
White steam blasted behind him for the primary acceleration.
The same sound repeated and the secondary acceleration began.
Shortly thereafter came the tertiary acceleration.
Each time the fist’s speed increased, it tore through the air and created a ring of white vapor.
The sound arrived after a short delay.
The metal fist struck the Heavy Barrel in the chest.
The impact pushed Neue Silber backwards.
Its weight provided no real resistance as the chest armor shattered and the force of the blow passed through it and out its back.
The six metal wings on its back ruptured like a flower.
Pale then tackled Neue Silber’s chest with his shoulder.
The Heavy Barrel staggered and tried to regain its footing, but…
“Kh!?”
It could not get its feet back on the ground. In fact, there was no more ground below its feet.
It was already out over the enormous pit.
Its wings were broken, so there was only possible outcome: succumb to gravity and fall.
“Pale Horse! Why waste your time on a personal vendetta against me!?”
“This isn’t personal.” Pale was out of breath with his right fist pressed against Neue Silber’s chest. “Those young fools are fighting up on Tristan right now. What’s so personal about keeping an old man out of their hair, Heiliger Karlsruhe?”
Pale didn’t wait for a response.
He took one look around as their falling speed picked up. He laughed bitterly as the growing wind of their fall rang in his ears. The surface of Germania was above them now.
The wind grew, carrying away the sweat on his brow.
“I doubt this fall is enough to kill you, so how bout we get round two started?”
He accelerated his right fist with it still pressed against the Heavy Barrel’s chest.
A loud crash followed.
Part 5[edit]
All work had ended in the red-lit underground space.
Only Elrich and Sylphide remained in the hangar.
The open door on the back wall led to a large elevator and all the researchers were onboard.
The space was filled with a pulsing and tremoring. Something like distant thunder came from the barrier floor up above.
“I don’t know what happens next, so leave ahead of me,” said Elrich before turning to look at Sylphide.
Sylphide was still connected to the pipes coming from the walls, but it had been released from the raised platform.
Elrich was currently viewing a metal box about as tall as he was.
The box had several gauges on its surface and their needles had all reached the red zone, but the hinged lever at the center of the box was pointed up in the off position.
He pulled out his pocket watch to check the time. It was 2:45 AM.
The researchers in the elevator behind him called his name and some told him to hurry, but he slowly put the watch back in his pocket.
He reached for the lever in front of him.
“I will activate you now. If the Messiah uses her Beweisen, she should detect your presence.”
He yanked down on the switch.
“When she does, call for her, Marsch Gant.”
He took a breath.
“Ask her for the Text needed to leave this place.”
Part 6[edit]
In the wind, Hazel heard everything Schweitzer said in front of the door.
…So he knows everything too.
She gave a mental nod of understanding and looked around. No one was moving. The Neue Kavaliers surrounding her had lowered their heads a little, but they seemed frozen in place with their weapons in hand.
There was one sound, however.
The clank of boots came from Schweitzer planting his feet a little wider apart.
“The world can undoubtedly be saved with Neue Erde or the Messiah’s method. At the very least, both are attempting to do so.”
He viewed the Neue Kavaliers on the launch pad and told them to make their own decisions.
He smiled before turning toward Berger on his left.
“I will fight to keep my promise with Neue Erde. …Messiah, perhaps it is possible to save Neue Erde with your Tuning, but can you save every last part of her?”
Hazel responded with a question.
“What does that mean?”
“She views it as her duty to be lost, so is there a way of saving her that does not allow even that duty to be lost?” He took a breath. “If you can do that and stop Tristan, then I will admit defeat.”
Schweitzer took a fighting stance once he was done speaking.
Berger responded by readying Gelegenheit.
Only Tristan’s pulse echoed across the high-altitude launch pad.
That heartbeat had a rhythm of one beat per second, making it sound like the ticking of a biological clock.
That sound acted as a signal for two people to move.
The first was Hellard Schweitzer standing in front of the door.
The other was Dog Berger.
Schweitzer raised his prosthetic fist and Berger shoved a Phlogiston Tank into Gelegenheit’s hilt while they both walked toward the center of the launch pad.
Schweitzer had his back to the door and Berger circled in front of him, placing himself in front of Hazel.
Meanwhile, the five AIF soldiers standing next to Neue Schwarz lined up alongside Berger.
But the Geheimnis Agency Neue Kavaliers surrounding Hazel stayed put.
Berger glanced over at the motionless knights and asked Schweitzer about it.
“Not getting any help?”
Schweitzer nodded.
“You are short on time, aren’t you? And…” He raised his metal fist. “Do not think this will be easy for you.”
Hazel nodded at that.
“The plan was to get through no matter what it took. And once this is over…”
She checked her watch to find it was 2:48 AM.
But seeing that time made her smile.
“Let’s try to be friends until the world changes.”
Then she opened her mouth to speak her will’s Text – her Aerial Words.
<The Messiah believes in destiny.>
She activated the Messiah eye’s Beweisen and a thick dark blade emerged from Berger’s Gelegenheit. When the destruction grew past 4 yards, a voice spoke from the sky in response. A woman’s voice.
<The New World…>
That was Neue Erde’s Beweisen. A single powerful tremor ran through Schweitzer’s prosthetic right arm.
<The New World believes in the hero.>
Hazel saw Schweitzer lower his head for just a moment.
He pressed his lips together and stared at the metal floor, but then his head sprang back up and he turned toward her.
She noticed a change then. Wind ether was gathering atop the 3-yard overhang that formed the lip of the door.
The bluish-white Lives of the high-altitude wind were forming something.
…Just like the person standing atop the Gard-class.
But this faintly transparent person was not the one she had seen in Cologne’s sky.
This was a woman wearing a Geheimnis Agency combat uniform.
“Lowenzahn Naylor.”
Schweitzer heard Hazel speak the name, but he did not look back. He only shut his eyes and nodded.
Standing above them all, Lowenzahn expressionlessly viewed the Neue Kavalier below and nodded.
She opened her mouth and spoke gently.
<The New World has arrived.>
Her voice signaled the beginning of the battle.
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